Cape boat dealer will open location at Quincy marina

Visitors to the Bay Pointe Marina will soon have the chance to not only take boats out on the water, but also to buy new ones. Last week, the Quincy marina announced that Mashpee-based boat dealer Bosun’s Marine will be opening a retail location on its 12-acre property, just in time for boating season.

Visitors to the Bay Pointe Marina will soon have the chance to not only take boats out on the water, but also to buy new ones.

Last week, the Quincy marina announced that Mashpee-based boat dealer Bosun’s Marine will be opening a retail location on its 12-acre property, just in time for boating season. Brian Foley, 50, general manager and part-owner of the Quincy marina, said the addition of Bosun’s will generate new business.

“They’ll bring in the boats, and customers along with them. And when a customer buys a new boat, they’re going to need a place to keep it,” Foley said.

Bosun’s, a leading seller of EdgeWater and Pursuit powerboats and a “top 100 dealer” according to Boating Industry Magazine, already has locations in East Falmouth, Mashpee and Peabody. Steve Chase, Bosun’s director of sales and marketing, said the Quincy location will “really help to fill the gap.”

Chase was once an employee of Boston-based powerboat dealer Russo Marine, which had a retail location at Bay Pointe until 2008, when it was forced to downsize because of the financial crisis.

The Bay Pointe Marina has 269 wet slips and can accommodate vessels up to 200 feet long. It also has a neighboring restaurant, the Inn at Bay Pointe.

In September 2012, the marina was purchased by Suntex Ventures LLC of Dallas, with backing from a Chicago-based private equity firm, Harrison Street Real Estate Capital.

As a part of a planned $300,000 post-purchase improvement project, the marina has upgraded its docks and travel lifts, and even installed Wi-Fi service.

Rather than manage the business from out of state, Suntex has empowered him to make improvements and try to bring in new business, Foley said.

“They’ve basically given us the reins and left us alone,” he said.

Foley, who has been working at the Bay Pointe Marina for 25 years, says he has seen an appreciable decline in what he calls the “boating generation” over the last five years.

During that time, younger would-be boaters with less disposable income have been hesitant to invest the tens of thousands of dollars needed to buy and maintain a boat, he said.

But with the economy in recovery, Foley is hopeful that the renovations, and additions like Bosun’s, will attract “day boaters” – those interested in smaller, less costly boats.

“We want to give them as much as we can for their money,” he said. “Times have changed, but I’m excited.”